makes me think of the little family of Bethlehem. Your struggles have not taken   
   away your laughter, your joy and your hope. Struggles which have not lessened   
   your sense of solidarity but if anything, have made it grow.   
    "I would like think for a moment about Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem",   
   continue.   
   "They were forced to leave home, families and friends. They had to leave all   
   that they had and to go somewhere else, to a place where they knew no one, a   
   place where they had no house or family. That was when that young couple had   
   Jesus. That was how they gave us Jesus. They were alone, in a strange land,   
   just   
   the three of them. Then, all of a sudden, shepherds began to arrive. People   
   just   
   like them who had to leave their homes to find better opportunities for their   
   families. Their lives were affected by harsh weather but by other kinds of   
   hardship too. When they heard that Jesus had been born, they went to see him.   
   They became neighbours. In an instant, they became a family to Mary and Joseph.   
   The family of Jesus.   
    "That is what happens when Jesus comes into our lives. It is what happens with   
   faith. Faith brings us closer. It makes us neighbours. It draws us closer to   
   the   
   lives of others. Faith awakens our commitment, our solidarity. The birth of   
   Jesus changes our lives. A faith which does not draw us into solidarity is a   
   faith which is dead.   
    "'I am very Catholic, I am a devout Catholic, I go to Mass every Sunday'" said   
   Francis. "But tell me, what goes on in the Banados? 'Ah, I don't know, yes, no,   
   I know that there are people there, but I don't know ...". For all those Sunday   
   Masses, if you do not have a fraternal heart, if you do not know what happens   
   among your people, then your faith is very weak, it sickens, or it dies. It is   
   a   
   faith without Christ. Faith without solidarity is faith without Christ, it is   
   faith without God, it is faith without brothers. This saying comes to mind - I   
   hope I remember it well - which illustrates this problem of faith without   
   solidarity: 'A God without people, people without brothers, people without   
   Jesus". This is faith without solidarity. And God places Himself in the midst   
   of   
   the people He chose to accompany, and sends them His Son ... to save them and   
   to   
   help them. God acted in solidarity with His people, and Jesus did not hesitate   
   to condescend, to humble Himself unto death for each one of us, for this   
   brotherly solidarity, the solidarity that is born of the His love for His   
   Father   
   and His love for us".   
    "As I said, the first to be fraternal was the Lord, Who chose to live among   
   us,   
   Who chose to live in our midst. And I come to you like those shepherds who were   
   in Bethlehem. I want to be your neighbour. I want to bless your faith, your   
   hands and your community. I come to join you in giving thanks, because faith   
   has   
   become hope, and hope in turn kindles love. The faith which Jesus awakens in us   
   is a faith which makes us able to dream of the future, and to work for it here   
   and now. That is why I want to urge you to continue to be missionaries, to keep   
   spreading the faith in these streets and alleys. This faith that gives rise to   
   solidarity between us, with our brother Jesus, and our Mother, the Virgin Mary.   
   Be neighbours above all to the young and the elderly. Be a support for young   
   families and all families which are experiencing difficulty. Perhaps the   
   strongest message you can give is that of solidarity in faith. The devil wants   
   us to fight among ourselves, to divide us in order to defeat us and to rob us   
   of   
   our faith. Solidarity among brothers to defend the faith! Solidarity among   
   brothers to defend the faith! And may this fraternal faith be a message for all   
   the city".   
    "I wish to pray for your families, and to pray to the Holy Family so that its   
   example and its witness may continue to offer light for your path, and   
   encouragement in times of trouble. May the Holy Family always give us   
   'shepherds', priests and bishops able to accompany, support and encourage our   
   families; capable of nurturing this fraternal faith that can never be   
   defeated".   
    The Pope invited all those present to recite the Lord's Prayer together, the   
   "prayer to our Father that makes us brothers, that leads us to our brother, His   
   Son Jesus, and that gives us a Mother who accompanies us". After blessing the   
   inhabitants of Banado Norte, he exclaimed, "Do not let the devil divide you!".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Mass in Nu Guazu: learning Christian hospitality   
    Vatican City, 13 July 2015 (VIS) - Holy Mass in Nu Guazu, the shrine where St.   
   John Paul II canonised St. Roque Gonzalez de Santa Cruz and his companions in   
   1988, was the second stage of Pope Francis' Sunday in Paraguay. The Pope   
   celebrated Mass in the large field of Nu Guazu in the presence of more than one   
   and a half million people who applauded as he toured to greet the faithful from   
   the popemobile.   
    In his homily, Pope Francis commented first on the Psalm of the first reading   
   in the liturgy, which tells us that "the Lord will shower down blessings, and   
   our land will yield its increase". "We are invited to celebrate this mysterious   
   communion between God and his People, between God and us. The rain is a sign of   
   his presence, in the earth tilled by our hands. It reminds us that our   
   communion   
   with God always brings forth fruit, always gives life. This confidence is born   
   of faith, from knowing that we depend on grace, which will always transform and   
   nourish our land".   
    "It is a confidence which is learned, which is taught. A confidence nurtured   
   within a community, in the life of a family. A confidence which radiates from   
   the faces of all those people who encourage us to follow Jesus, to be disciples   
   of the One who can never deceive. A disciple knows that he or she is called to   
   have this confidence; we feel Jesus' invitation to be his friend, to share his   
   lot, his very life. 'No longer do I call you servants... but I have called you   
   friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you'.   
   The   
   disciples are those who learn how to dwell in the confidence born of Jesus'   
   friendship".   
    The Gospel speaks to us of this kind of discipleship, showing us "the identity   
   card of the Christian. Our calling card, our credentials. Jesus calls his   
   disciples and sends them out, giving them clear and precise instructions. He   
   challenges them to take on a whole range of attitudes and ways of acting.   
   Sometimes these can strike us as exaggerated or even absurd. It would be easier   
   to interpret these attitudes symbolically or 'spiritually'. But Jesus is quite   
   precise, very clear. He doesn't tell them simply to do whatever they think they   
   can".   
    The Pope invited reflection on some of these attitudes: "'Take nothing for the   
   journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money...' 'When you enter a house,   
   stay there until you leave the place'.   
    "All this might seem quite unrealistic", he commented. "We could concentrate   
   on   
   the words, 'bread', 'money', 'bag', 'staff', 'sandals' and 'tunic'. And this   
   would be fine. But it strikes me that one key word can easily pass unnoticed.   
   It   
   is a word at the heart of Christian spirituality, of our experience of   
   discipleship: 'welcome'. Jesus as the good master, the good teacher, sends them   
   out to be welcomed, to experience hospitality. He says to them: 'Where you   
   enter   
   a house, stay there'. He sends them out to learn one of the hallmarks of the   
   community of believers. We might say that a Christian is someone who has   
   learned   
   to welcome others, to show hospitality.   
    "Jesus does not send them out as men of influence, landlords, officials armed   
   with rules and regulations. Instead, he makes them see that the Christian   
   journey is about changing hearts. It is about learning to live differently,   
   under a different law, with different rules. It is about turning from the path   
   of selfishness, conflict, division and superiority, and taking instead the path   
   of life, generosity and love. It is about passing from a mentality which   
   domineers, stifles and manipulates to a mentality which welcomes, accepts and   
   cares. These are two contrasting mentalities, two ways of approaching our life   
   and our mission.   
    "How many times do we see mission in terms of plans and programs", observed   
   the   
   bishop of Rome. "How many times do we see evangelisation as involving any   
   number   
   of strategies, tactics, manoeuvres, techniques, as if we could convert people   
   on   
   the basis of our own arguments. Today the Lord says to us quite clearly: in the   
   mentality of the Gospel, you do not convince people with arguments, strategies   
   or tactics. You convince them by learning how to welcome them".   
    "The Church is a mother with an open heart. She knows how to welcome and   
   accept, especially those in need of greater care, those in greater difficulty.   
   The Church is the home of hospitality. How much good we can do, if only we try   
   to speak the language of hospitality, of welcome! How much pain can be soothed,   
   how much despair can be allayed in a place where we feel at home! Welcoming the   
   hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner, the leper   
   and the paralytic. Welcoming those who do not think as we do, who do not have   
   faith or who have lost it. Welcoming the persecuted, the unemployed. Welcoming   
   the different cultures, of which our earth is so richly blessed. Welcoming   
   sinners.   
    "So often we forget that there is an evil underlying our sins. There is a   
   bitter root which causes damage, great damage, and silently destroys so many   
   lives. There is an evil which, bit by bit, finds a place in our hearts and eats   
   away at our life: it is isolation. Isolation which can have many roots, many   
   causes. How much it destroys our life and how much harm it does us. It makes us   
   turn our back on others, God, the community. It makes us closed in on   
   ourselves.   
   That is why the real work of the Church, our mother, is not mainly to manage   
   works and projects, but to learn how to live in fraternity with others. A   
   welcome-filled fraternity is the best witness that God is our Father, for "by   
   this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one   
   another".   
    In this way, "Jesus teaches us a new way of thinking. He opens before us a   
   horizon brimming with life, beauty, truth and fulfilment. God never closes off   
   horizons; he is never unconcerned about the lives and sufferings of his   
   children. God never allows himself to be outdone in generosity. So he sends us   
   his Son, he gives him to us, he hands him over, he shares him... so that we can   
   learn the way of fraternity, of self-giving. He opens up a new horizon; he is   
   the new and definitive Word which sheds light on so many situations of   
   exclusion, disintegration, loneliness and isolation. He is the Word which   
   breaks   
   the silence of loneliness.   
    "And when we are weary or worn down by our efforts to evangelise, it is good   
   to   
   remember that the life which Jesus holds out to us responds to the deepest   
   needs   
   of people. 'We were created for what the Gospel offers us: friendship with   
   Jesus   
   and love of our brothers and sisters'".   
    He remarked, "One thing is sure: we cannot force anyone to receive us, to   
   welcome us; this is itself part of our poverty and freedom. But neither can   
   anyone force us not to be welcoming, hospitable in the lives of our people. No   
   one can tell us us not to accept and embrace the lives of our brothers and   
   sisters, especially those who have lost hope and zest for life. How good it   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)